I was a little sad to find that the direction I decided to go would mean Tekēhu would leave my party. I already had Pallegina leave earlier and having another leave unexpectedly would really ruin the time I put into maintaining this party (now maxed level, but heading over to take care of the Seeker, Slayer, Survivor DLC before moving to end game). So I think I may have to abandon that direction and take another route just to finish off the game with my current party. A bit disappointed that end-game decisions would result in a major drop like that; Pallegina I could get behind even though I didn’t like it because it was early enough for me to adapt and go with a different mix of companions.

Am I the only one that makes companion choices fairly early on and sticks with them, or do you consider all available companions as a mix-and-match depending on what you are doing? I’ve always made the choice and stuck with it to maximize replayability. Each time I played a party-based RPG, I’d have a different mix of companions (either in personality, class, style, etc). If you switch out companions at will, it would feel too much like respecing, something else I avoid. It wasn’t until this second full play through that I realized there’s a little ‘recommended companion’ feature at the top of certain quests. Is it fair to assume that the game is designed with the idea that you’ll switch out your companions at will?

Related: the Seeker, Slayer, Survivor DLC recommends Konstanten, someone I’ve yet to take in either of my games. Ugh. I hope I’m not missing much by leaving him out.

I never finished the game, but I did plan out (and start) several parties all with different lineups. I never want to switch characters out and feel it gives me more opportunity to roleplay the game differently based on which companions I’m bringing along this time.

A tad disappointed in the Seeker, Slayer, Survivor DLC so far (early on). Very combat-centric again. I was hoping for White March level of DLC with Deadfire but I suppose that wasn’t going to happen so quickly after release. Not that these first two DLC were bad at all, just not up to the level I expected based on the main game. It doesn’t help that I’m maxed out on xp so advancement (a big deal for me in RPGs) is at a stand-still.

Very much looking forward to The Forgotten Sanctum DLC. Sounds like it’ll be more of the story/quest-based gameplay that fits well with the rest of the game with some real consequences associated with it.

Blockquote
It wasn’t until this second full play through that I realized there’s a little ‘recommended companion’ feature at the top of certain quests…
Related: the Seeker, Slayer, Survivor DLC recommends Konstanten, someone I’ve yet to take in either of my games. Ugh. I hope I’m not missing much by leaving him out.

I’ve only played through once, before any of the DLC, and I didnt realize it either. Was this added in a parch?
And I didn’t use Konstanten. I recall that one of the women left my party but i dont remember which one.

I think I broke this game by running 3 melee and leveling/gearing/money them by doing bounties. I am burning down everything on veteran level. (barb/fighter/mix class rogue/fighter).
I sorta just watch combat. I am no genius min/maxer but… you know I cannot ever recall a time in Baldur’s Gate 2 I wasn’t nervous about an encounter with almost anything.
I like the game and oddly I really like the ship stuff and the world but ….

My NEW pet RPG peeve: the constant decision to yank the camera and control away from me to do a story segment! Grrrrrr.

I really wonder if turn-based games like DOS and Pathfinder are actually selling better these days. I know almost everyone I talk to prefers turn-based RPG’s, and seeing what can be done with stuff like XCOM and DOS has reminded folks what makes turn-based games great.

Is 110K copies much lower than PoE 1?

e: According to wiki, PoE1 sold like 700K over the several years it was available, so they weren’t being unreasonable with their projections, I think.

That’s 110k copies on top of the Fig people who prepurchased the game, another 34k copies. All that means is that the Fig investors didn’t make back their money. That doesn’t mean Obsidian isn’t in the black.

I don’t follow the investor’s logic that the numbers revealed by Fig amount to 110k sold. As I understand only revenue was revealed and he extrapolated the units sold. The game’s current price is 12.49 EUR incl. VAT and shop margin. The number of copies sold is probably much bigger than 110k.

POE2 is very good. The story and world (in my opinion) are a lot better than 1. The ship stuff and open worldiness is great. I saw my last post and I am sad to say it may be true: You can min/max combat at hard without a huge problem. That is a small problem for a game I would say. Though that may be just a difficulty option away.

I agree that PoE1 had better structure, and like @fdsaion I feel like the writing in 2 improved over 1, but the problem with PoE2 is the main plot. It feels way too short, like if you just did it all told you could almost wrap the game up in a single session, or something. If you spend time exploring the world, it’s almost a perfect RPG, but like @ShivaX points out then you have this strange feeling of “shouldn’t I be chasing the giant city-sized statue?” that runs counter to how the game is clearly designed to be experienced.

I also want more massive dungeons - there are a few, but I feel like PoE1 had bigger combat/exploration spaces overall. Not a deal breaker, just a “if I could make a wish” kind of thing.

I only played PoE2 once, and I’m really excited to dive back in at some point here, now the game has been updated with tons more content and QOL improvements. I’ll probably do just that after I wrap RDR 2, I think.